TTULANE RALLIES PAST SOUTH ALABAMA IN HOME OPENER 1C LSU OVERCOMES SLUGGISH START TO BEAT LA. TECH 1C SAINTS AT LIONS NOON • FOX 1C N O L A.C O M
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S u n d ay, S e p t e m b e r 13, 2026
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Fields, Carter weigh in on Black representation Redistricting could mean fewer Black members of Congress BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
Josie Pry, left, approaches an experimental aquaculture farm operated by Dauphin Island Sea Lab off the coast of Alabama while Ashley McDonald stands atop the project’s platform. They are raising redfish in the floating pen, the only one of its kind currently being operated in the Gulf.
FARMING FISH
Aquaculture experiments are emerging in the Gulf, prompting intense debate. For Louisiana, its seafood industry and culture, the stakes are enormous. BY MIKE SMITH
Staff writer
The redfish were biting out in the Gulf, but not in the way they’re usually caught. Instead, about 1,000 of them in total, all around 10 inches long, were in an artificial pen enclosed by netting, a machine on the surface tossing out tiny food pellets every five minutes. Ashley McDonald, the scientist managing what is currently the only finfish farm in the Gulf’s open waters, stood atop a yellow platform surrounding the wind-swept pen, waves lapping against its sides. She reflected on the smallscale but compelling aquaculture experiment. “We can grow fish because we have funding to do it,” she said. “Does that mean that that’s actually economically viable?” It is a question rooted in a rising moment of peril for the Gulf, and it holds high-stakes consequences for Louisiana and the rest of the states along its shores. The floating aquaculture platform operated by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab off the coast of Alabama is scientific in nature, designed to shed light on whether such small projects can be ecologi-
WASHINGTON — Baton Rouge’s Democratic congressman, Cleo Fields, is somewhat sanguine entering the final furlongs of the Nov. 3 congressional midterm races. He knows he is at the center of a legal and political battle that could cause the sharpest decrease in Black representation on Capitol Hill in recent years. But he also hopes for an energization of the African American community that could propel Democratic control of the House. “We’re going to lose some members of Congress,” including himFields self, Fields said. “But I’m sure the Democrats will win a majority.” About a third of the seats drawn to help elect 61 African Americans to Congress were redrawn because of the April 29 Louisiana v. Callais decision in the U.S. Supreme Court. That ruling allowed Republican-led states to redraw districts that had Carter favored Black candidates, most of whom are Democrats, into ones that are much more conservative and favor Republicans. Fields’ district was at the core of that ruling. He was elected to the House in 2024, only to have a 6-3 Supreme Court find in Callais that his 6th Congressional District was unconstitutionally gerrymandered along racial lines. Many Republicans cheered that decision.
ä See CONGRESS, page 8A
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Commercial fishermen Luke Callaway, left, and Wilfred Gomez unload their catch at Harlon’s LA Fish and Seafood in Kenner.
SEA OF
Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has renamed the Gulf of America. It would mark a monumental shift in the country’s commercial Second in a series fishing industry, as well as for a water body more known for its oil cally and economically sound. But rigs, barrier islands and beaches. it may offer a glimpse of the future. For supporters, it is a way to reA warming climate, overfish- duce the huge number of imported ing, economic opportunities and seafood consumed by Americans, Americans’ voracious appetite for currently around 85% of the total seafood are building momentum ä See FISH FARMS, page 6A for large-scale fish farming in the
TROUBLES
Some La. landowners fighting power lines for Meta data center Entergy says it is working to reduce impact
BY SAM KARLIN Staff writer
‘This is where we are’
his arms. With increased So it felt odd, said Devall, the pasof St. Martin’s Episcopal Church security, churches tor in Metairie, to watch this spring as security consultant walked the seek new ways to achurch’s ushers through the basics welcome congregants of keeping the church and wor-
shippers safe: Look for unfamiliar faces. Look for someone carrying a backpack. Look for anything that Staff writer might go wrong. “Those things don’t exactly go In his nearly 30 years as a minister, the Rev. Fred Devall has taken together, right?” Devall said of a comfort in an overriding tenet of welcoming church with sometimes his faith — “The Episcopal Church ä See CHURCHES, page 7A welcomes you!” he said, opening
BY BOB WARREN
WEATHER HIGH 92 LOW 77 PAGE 8B
STAFF PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
The Rev. Fred Devall, of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Metairie, closes the main entrance doors. Across Louisiana, religious leaders say that security at churches, synagogues and mosques is important.
CALHOUN BRAKE, La. — A baby alligator scrambled off a log as Parnell Perry weaved his mud boat through the swamp, bumping into the occasional cypress tree. Dragonflies buzzed lazily in the August afternoon heat. Parnell’s father, Harvey Perry, sat on the bow. As the boat arrived at a clearing, the landscape changed abruptly. Towering electrical transmission lines — “high lines,” as Parnell calls them — came into view above. The swamp is more than 30 miles northwest of Meta’s $50 billion “Hyperion” data center, in Holly Ridge. But the effects of the massive data center are already being felt here. Contractors turned a property down the road into a dirt pit, and they’ve been hauling earth to a site next door to the property, where Entergy is building a new substation. Now, the Perry family is fighting in court with Entergy over whether the utility should be able to
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................4B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
ä See DATA CENTER, page 10A
14TH yEAR, NO. 32